Sign inThis page sets out the content of the Learning to teach secondary geography section. It lists the content from the ITE area of the website mapped against the Department for Education’s Teachers’ Standards 1–8.
Each section below expands to show the content covered. The links in the left column on each table below go directly to the relevant GA ITE page; the contents of that page are shown in the right column.
High expectations (Standard 1) and Manage behaviour effectively (Standard 7)
What is ‘geography’? Teaching geography today; who studies geography? | |
Subject content knowledge; pedagogic content knowledge (PCK): is a geography degree enough? improve and develop subject knowledge; making the most of it | |
Knowledge; passion for the subject; your rationale; understand geography pedagogy; a good classroom environment; high expectations; teacher as a role model; challenge; geography ‘Inside the Black Box’ | |
Effective geography departments; what makes great teaching; observing good geography lessons | |
How to improve teaching; reviewing teaching | |
How pupils learn (Standard 2 – ‘Promote good progress’)
| Students’ learning in geography | |
| What do new teachers need to know about learning | Students’ learning; learning styles; cognitive science |
| Geographical learning and memory | Working and long-term memory; cognitive load theory; the process of learning; cognitive overload; dual coding; chunking; active engagement; retrieval practice; spaced practice |
| Making connections for learning | Schemas; prior knowledge; Deep and shallow understanding; Generative learning; novice and expert learners; process of understanding |
| Consolidating geographical learning | Engaging; building connections; mastery; misunderstandings and misconceptions |
| Progression in geographical learning | Conceptual development; geographical description and explanation; Bloom’s Taxonomy; achievement and progress in geography |
| Metacognition | What it is and how to teach it; metacognitive learners; the metacognitive cycle |
| Learning theories and geography | Behaviourism; cognitivism and constructivism; social constructivism; learning through language; mastery learning; experiential learning; Bruner; Vygotsky; Piaget; Bloom; Kolb |
Subject and curriculum (Standard 3 – ‘Demonstrate good subject and curriculum knowledge’)
Geography 5 to 18
Personal geographies; students as geographers; students’ views | |
Primary curriculum; key stage 2/3 transition; visit to a primary school | |
Post-16 education; preparing for university; how different is it? | |
Active learning; starting points; enquiry; challenge; argumentation; case studies | |
Subject knowledge
What is it? Substantive and disciplinary knowledge; core knowledge; what do students know? what should they learn? National Framework for geography | |
Learning and teaching geography knowledge; locational knowledge; teaching places, concepts, processes, practice, metacognitive knowledge | |
Powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK); Three Futures scenarios Teaching powerful knowledge; case studies | |
What does it mean? The Anthropocene; geographical thinking and school geography | |
Geographical concepts
What is a geographical concept? Their importance; concrete, abstract and substantive concepts; key concepts; organising concepts; analysing concepts | |
Helping students to learn concepts; Planning for conceptual understanding; Do students understand a concept? Threshold concepts | |
What is a concept map and why use them? Teaching students to use concepts maps; benefits | |
Common misconceptions and why they happen; looking for inaccuracies; countering misconceptions; managing misconceptions and avoiding them | |
Place and places
The importance of place; ways of thinking about place; A three lamps model; place as a concept; a ‘sense of place’; place and mental maps; a question of scale | |
Place in the school curriculum; teaching locational knowledge; Place knowledge in the National Curriculum; progression in understanding from year 7 to year 13 | |
different perspectives; changing places; awe and wonder; thinking about where students live and exploring the local area | |
Choosing places to teach; case studies; students’ understanding of distant places; diversity of places; misrepresentation of places; preparing teaching units | |
What place understandings are required? Case studies resources and information | |
Geographical Practice and Skills
Meaning of geographical practice and menu | |
Meaning of geographical skills and general skills; geographical practice; teaching skills for geographical |
Spatial skills, maps and graphicacy
Meanings and menu | |
Graphicacy; diagrams; spatial thinking; developing these skills; digital mapping; critical literacy in maps | |
Maps and map skills; types of maps; map drawing; maps from memory; mental maps; affective maps | |
OS map skills; Digimap; teaching mapwork skills; using maps outside the classroom; maps and aerial photographs | |
Teaching locational knowledge; learning with globes, atlases and world maps; atlas activities; Google Earth; Map projections | |
What are geospatial technologies? GIS and learning geography; progression in GIS; GIS in enquiries and fieldwork |
Literacy and numeracy
DfE ITT criteria requirements | |
Importance of literacy; disciplinary literacy; geographical vocabulary | |
Teacher talk; dialogic pedagogies; developing oracy; quality talk; activities | |
Reading in the geography classroom; for older students; active reading strategies; directed activities related to texts (DARTS) | |
Different forms; effective writing in geography; writing frames; making notes; styles and genres; providing stimulus; quality of writing; spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) | |
Strategies and common issues; discursive writing; extended writing and assessment | |
Numeracy and numbers in geography; data-handling; numeracy for maps, charts and graphs in geography; statistics; numeracy for geography examinations |
Geographical enquiry
Why is it enquiry important and why use an enquiry approach. Observing enquiry lessons; suggested research study | |
Frameworks for planning; creating a need to know; using data as evidence; making sense; presenting findings; reflecting on learning; assessment within enquiries; examinations; examples of enquiries; planning your own enquiry | |
Geographical enquiry: the teacher’s role
| Setting up enquiry; an enquiry culture in the classroom; different teacher approaches; supporting learning; observations and research into geographical enquiry; encouraging student reflection |
Good key questions and big geographical questions; Who decides the questions? question generators | |
Fieldwork
Why is fieldwork important for geographical learning? learning outside of the classroom; fieldwork in schools; improving fieldwork subject knowledge | |
Planning for fieldwork and geographical learning? How good is your subject knowledge for fieldwork? Creative ideas; styles of fieldwork | |
An enquiry approach; different models; data collection and analysis; conclusions and evaluation; case studies | |
Fieldwork preparation; mobile technology ‘in the field’; smartphone applications; management and analysis of fieldwork data; virtual fieldwork | |
Reading and guidance | |
Different types of fieldwork; field teaching; management and risk assessment | |
Practical fieldwork experience and how to make the most of it | |
Fieldwork reading list | |
Critical thinking and creativity
The research behind ‘thinking through geography’; David Leat. managing thinking activities; the importance of debriefing; thinking geography activities | |
Importance of critical thinking; developing students’ critical thinking; activities in geography | |
Types of creative activities; the creativity wheel; creativity arts in geography | |
Managing decision making and problem solving; at GCSE; activities; making animals activity; layered decision making; mysteries | |
Using argumentation; argumentation frame; argument types; argument maps | |
Curriculum and curriculum planning
Different curriculum approaches in schools; who decides? the curriculum? the national framework for geography | |
Rationale and curriculum intent; coherence; designing a knowledge-rich curriculum; the place of concepts; Ofsted; interleaving; case studies | |
Continuity and sequencing; spiral curriculum; planning for reflection. | |
Curriculum making as a creative process; key decisions; a toolkit; GeoCapabilities; curriculum artefacts; assessing the impact; curriculum review | |
curriculum understanding; writing a scheme of work | |
Interdisciplinary curricula; big issues; skills-based models; teaching another subject | |
Resources
Available resources; choosing, planning, designing and reviewing; be imaginative! | |
Digital technology and teaching; artificial intelligence; AI; access to technology | |
Print resources; why use textbooks? reviewing geography textbooks | |
Using photographs; photo interpretation and analysis skills; students in taking or selecting photographs; aerial photographs; remote sensing (satellite) images; cartoons; whiteboards; classroom display | |
Ways to use video; predicting with video | |
Evaluating media and web-based resources; teaching media literacy and criticality; social media; geography in the news; WebQuests | |
What are geospatial technologies? GIS and learning geography; progression in GIS; GIS in enquiries and fieldwork | |
Maps and map skills; types of maps; map drawing; maps from memory; mental maps; affective maps | |
Teaching thematic geography
An academic perspective; changes; teaching human geography; using models; population and migration; health and disease; settlements and urban geography; economic geography | |
Why and what should we teach? values and attitudes; teaching strategies; morally careless/careful teaching; planning topics | |
Political/policy context; tackling racism; racial literacy; race and diversity in geography teaching; representations; challenging stereotypes; lesson planning | |
Physical geography in the curriculum; accuracy of sources; weather and climate; global ecosystems and biodiversity; landscapes; practical learning; links with science; using speculation; meeting the challenge of teaching physical geography; resources | |
Menu | |
The environment and the school curriculum. teaching about the environment; a complex and challenging topic.; what should geographers be teaching? | |
Different ideologies and perceptions; teaching sustainability; world or local issues; peak oil; the limits to growth; students’ understanding of sustainability; resources | |
Place of global warming and climate change in the school curriculum; big geographical questions; teaching about climate change; resources | |
Teaching geography for the future; students’ hopes and fears for the future; implementation in the classroom | |
Meanings of development and globalisation; development and globalisation in the curriculum; teaching and key concepts; scale, interdependence, development and globalisation; teaching approaches | |
Classroom practice (Standard 4 – ‘Plan and teach well structured lessons’)
Classroom practice in geography
Effective classroom practice; What makes great teaching? Proxies for Learning; forms of classroom practice; observing the teaching-learning relationship | |
What is teaching style? teacher-centred and student-centred; novice and expert learners; the participation dimension | |
What is collaborative learning? The role of the teacher; planning; practicalities of working in groups; strategies for group discussion | |
Explicit teaching
Menu | |
Explicit teaching; instruction; Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction | |
What is exposition and using explanation; constructing a diagram to aid explanation; giving explanations; pitfalls | |
What is modelling and how to use it; worked examples; modelling a written outcome; different forms of modelling; Using AI for modelling an answer; case studies |
Questions in the geography classroom
Teaching geography for the future; students’ hopes and fears for the future; implementation in the classroom | |
Questions in the classroom; whole-class questioning techniques; making students think; Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce; higher order questions | |
Teaching students to ask good questions; simple questioning; 5Ws; classroom strategies; snowballing, hot seating, development compass rose, intelligent guesswork; asking higher order geographical questions; questioning frameworks; layers of inference | |
What is Socratic questioning and how to use it | |
Why and what should we teach? values and attitudes; teaching strategies; morally careless/careful teaching; planning topics |
Practice
The I-We-You approach | |
How to use; forms of retrieval practice; spaced practice and sequencing; reflecting on effective use | |
Independent practice: learning activities for geography classrooms | The purpose and how to do it; selecting activities; techniques to engage students; thinking hard; activities for geographical learning; the teacher’s role |
What is scaffolding and how does it work? strategies used in geography teaching | |
What is good homework? setting homework; how successful is your homework? flipped learning | |
What is mastery learning? mastery learning in geography |
Enquiry and experiential learning
An overview and menu | |
Setting up enquiry; an enquiry culture in the classroom; different teacher approaches; supporting learning; observations and research into geographical enquiry; encouraging student reflection | |
Different types of fieldwork; field teaching; management and risk assessment | |
Why use role play and drama in geography teaching? planning and managing a role play; drama strategies | |
What are they and how to use them; geography examples | |
What is debriefing and why is it so important? good debriefing | |
Managing decision making and problem solving; at GCSE; activities; making animals activity; layered decision making; mysteries. |
Teaching geography lessons
Menu | |
What makes a geography lesson good? essentials of good geography lessons; teaching good geography lessons | |
Why is lesson planning important? the planning cycle; planning format; what does the jargon mean? | |
What is the ‘big picture’; the lesson aim; content; objectives; sharing lesson objectives with students; pre-planning the lesson | |
What to consider in lesson design? lesson planning templates; observing and planning lessons | |
Elements of a lesson; starts; building on prior knowledge and experiences; instruction; learning activities; plenary; concluding the lesson; presenting the lesson plan; what to avoid? Where is the geography? | |
Reflecting on lessons and the Teachers’ Standards; what to include in a lesson evaluation |
Adaptive teaching (Standard 5 – ‘Adapt teaching’)
| Inclusion and adaptation | |
| Creating an inclusive geography classroom | What is inclusion? educational disadvantage; an inclusive classroom; inclusive fieldwork; an inclusive geography curriculum; listen to students |
| Students’ diverse learning needs | What is SEND? Finding out and understanding the needs of individuals; bilingual learners; disadvantage and underachievement; gender; higher achieving students |
| Teaching students with different learning needs | Teaching lower attainers, SEND, students who are disadvantaged, underachievers or disaffected; girls and boys; challenging the more able; teaching bilingual students |
| Adaptive teaching | What is adaptive teaching and how to approach it? lesson observations; diagnosing students’ needs; teaching approaches; pre-teaching, pace and scaffolding; the complexities; Planning adaptive teaching |
| Working with teaching assistants | Who are teaching assistants? Working with TAs in your classroom; the best use of a TA |
| Adaptive fieldwork | Planning fieldwork for students with disabilities; higher ability students |
Assessment (Standard 6 – ‘Make accurate and productive use of assessment’)
| Assessment in geography | |
| Assessing students’ learning | Assessment purposes; what does a new teacher need to know and be able to do; assessment terminology; observing assessment; making assessment effective and manageable? |
| Diagnostic assessment | What is it? establishing the starting point; diagnostic assessment during lessons; hinge-points and using hinge questions |
| Formative assessment | What is formative assessment and AfL? how to use it effectively; questions and assessment; feedback; success criteria and setting good targets; peer and self- assessment |
| Peer and self assessment | How to use peer and self- assessment; success criteria; formative peer assessment; self-assessment and its role in self-regulation and metacognition; geography case studies |
| Feedback and marking | The purposes of feedback; formative feedback practice; whole-class feedback; students giving feedback to each other; self-checking; written feedback; marking workload and expectations |
| Planning assessment | Assessment and curriculum planning; an assessment framework for geography; mixed economy of assessments; assessment practice; baseline assessments; summative assessment |
| Assessing progress in geography at key stage 3 | Benchmark expectations; planning assessment; assessing progress |
| Geography examinations | What do I need to know about examinations and be able to do? current geography examinations; GCSE; A level; fieldwork in examinations; preparing students for examinations; adaptive learning for GCSE; marking and assessing with examination criteria; planning for an examination specification |
| Assessment data and report writing in geography | The use of data in schools; published data; ‘Closing the gap’; writing reports; student portfolios |
Professional behaviours (Standard 8 – ‘Fulfil wider professional responsibilities’)
| Wider professional responsibilities | |
| Professional responsibilities and professional development | What is professional development; Contribution to the wider life of the school; working with colleagues and parents; your professional development; visiting other schools; professional training programmes; other CPD activities; professional learning communities; reading; engagement with research |
| Becoming a reflective geography teacher | What is a reflective teacher and why is it important? reflection in practice; using research and practitioner enquiry |
| Using research evidence about practice | Why and how to use research evidence; action research in your classroom |
| Belonging to the geography community | Why is a professional community important? How do I link with my geography community? Geographical websites, blogs and X (formerly Twitter) |
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ITE page links | Content / Keywords |
What is ‘geography’? Teaching geography today; who studies geography? | |
Subject content knowledge; pedagogic content knowledge (PCK): is a geography degree enough? improve and develop subject knowledge; making the most of it. | |
Knowledge; passion for the subject; your rationale; understand geography pedagogy; a good classroom environment; high expectations; teacher as a role model; challenge; geography ‘Inside the Black Box’ | |
Effective geography departments; what makes great teaching; observing good geography lessons | |
How to improve teaching; reviewing teaching | |
| Students’ learning in geography | |
| What do new teachers need to know about learning | Students’ learning; learning styles; cognitive science |
| Geographical learning and memory | Working and long-term memory; cognitive load theory; the process of learning; cognitive overload; dual coding; chunking; active engagement; retrieval practice; spaced practice |
| Making connections for learning | Schemas; prior knowledge; Deep and shallow understanding; Generative learning; novice and expert learners; process of understanding |
| Consolidating geographical learning | Engaging; building connections; mastery; misunderstandings and misconceptions |
| Progression in geographical learning | Conceptual development; geographical description and explanation; Bloom’s Taxonomy; achievement and progress in geography |
| Metacognition | What it is and how to teach it; metacognitive learners; the metacognitive cycle |
| Learning theories and geography | Behaviourism; cognitivism and constructivism; social constructivism; learning through language; mastery learning; experiential learning; Bruner; Vygotsky; Piaget; Bloom; Kolb |
| Geography 5 to 18 | |
| Geography for young people | Personal geographies; students as geographers; students’ views |
| Geography in the primary school | primary curriculum; key stage 2/3 transition; visit to a primary school |
| Post 16 geography teaching | post-16 education; preparing for university; how different is it? |
| Teaching strategies for post 16 geography | Active learning; starting points; enquiry; challenge; argumentation; case studies |
| Subject knowledge | |
| Subject knowledge | What is it? Substantive and disciplinary knowledge; core knowledge; what do students know? what should they learn? National Framework for geography. |
| Teaching subject knowledge | Learning and teaching geography knowledge; locational knowledge; teaching places, concepts, processes, practice, metacognitive knowledge. |
| Powerful geography knowledge | Powerful disciplinary knowledge (PDK); Three Futures scenarios Teaching powerful knowledge; case studies. |
| Thinking geographically | What does it mean? The Anthropocene; geographical thinking and school geography. |
| Geographical concepts | |
| Concepts in geography | What is a geographical concept? Their importance; concrete, abstract and substantive concepts; key concepts; organising concepts; analysing concepts. |
| Teaching geographical concepts | Helping students to learn concepts; Planning for conceptual understanding; Do students understand a concept? Threshold concepts |
| Concept mapping | What is a concept map and why use them? Teaching students to use concepts maps; benefits. |
| Misconceptions in geography | Common misconceptions and why they happen; looking for inaccuracies; countering misconceptions; managing misconceptions and avoiding them. |
| Place and Places | |
| Place in geography | The importance of place; ways of thinking about place; A three lamps model; place as a concept; a ‘sense of place’; place and mental maps; a question of scale |
| Teaching place knowledge | Place in the school curriculum; teaching locational knowledge; Place knowledge in the National Curriculum; progression in understanding from year 7 to year 13 |
| Teaching about places | different perspectives; changing places; awe and wonder; thinking about where students live and exploring the local area. |
| Teaching distant places | Choosing places to teach; case studies; students’ understanding of distant places; diversity of places; misrepresentation of places; preparing teaching units. |
| Changing places at A level | What place understandings are required? Case studies resources and information. |
| Geographical Practice | Meaning of geographical practice and menu. |
| Geographical skills | Meaning of geographical skills and general skills; geographical practice; teaching skills for geographical |
| Spatial skills, maps and graphicacy | Meanings and menu. |
| Graphicacy and spatial thinking | Graphicacy; diagrams; spatial thinking; developing these skills; digital mapping; critical literacy in maps |
| Teaching with maps | Maps and map skills; types of maps; map drawing; maps from memory; mental maps; affective maps |
| Ordnance Survey maps | OS map skills; Digimap; teaching mapwork skills; using maps outside the classroom; maps and aerial photographs |
| Using globes, atlases and world maps | Teaching locational knowledge; learning with globes, atlases and world maps; atlas activities; Google Earth; Map projections |
| Geospatial technologies (including GIS) | What are geospatial technologies? GIS and learning geography; progression in GIS; GIS in enquiries and fieldwork |
| Literacy and numeracy | DfE ITT criteria requirements |
| What has literacy got to do with geography? | Importance of literacy; disciplinary literacy; geographical vocabulary |
| Speaking and listening in geography | Teacher talk; dialogic pedagogies; developing oracy; quality talk; activities. |
| Reading in geography | Reading in the geography classroom; for older students; active reading strategies; directed activities related to texts (DARTS). |
| Writing in geography | Different forms; effective writing in geography; writing frames; making notes; styles and genres; providing stimulus; quality of writing; spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) |
| Developing extended writing | Strategies and common issues; discursive writing; extended writing and assessment. |
| Numeracy and geography | Numeracy and numbers in geography; data-handling; numeracy for maps, charts and graphs in geography; statistics; numeracy for geography examinations. |
| Geographical enquiry | |
| What is geographical enquiry? | Why is it enquiry important and why use an enquiry approach. Observing enquiry lessons; suggested research study. |
| Planning for geographical enquiry | Frameworks for planning; creating a need to know; using data as evidence; making sense; presenting findings; reflecting on learning; assessment within enquiries; examinations; examples of enquiries; planning your own enquiry; |
Geographical enquiry: the teacher’s role
| Setting up enquiry; an enquiry culture in the classroom; different teacher approaches; supporting learning; observations and research into geographical enquiry; encouraging student reflection. |
| Using key questions for enquiry | Good key questions and big geographical questions; Who decides the questions? question generators. |
| Fieldwork through enquiry | See below |
| Fieldwork | |
| Fieldwork | Why is fieldwork important for geographical learning? learning outside of the classroom; fieldwork in schools; improving fieldwork subject knowledge. |
| Planning fieldwork for geographical learning | Planning for fieldwork and geographical learning? How good is your subject knowledge for fieldwork? Creative ideas; styles of fieldwork. |
| Fieldwork through enquiry | An enquiry approach; different models; data collection and analysis; conclusions and evaluation; case studies |
| Fieldwork and Technology | Fieldwork preparation; mobile technology ‘in the field’; smartphone applications; management and analysis of fieldwork data; virtual fieldwork. |
| AL independent fieldwork investigation | Reading and guidance |
| Fieldwork experiences and field teaching | Different types of fieldwork; field teaching; management and risk assessment. |
| Fieldwork experience (for ITE students) | Practical fieldwork experience and how to make the most of it. |
| Reading list for fieldwork (download) | Fieldwork reading list |
| Critical thinking and creativity | |
| Thinking through geography | The research behind ‘thinking through geography’; David Leat. managing thinking activities; the importance of debriefing; thinking geography activities. |
| Critical thinking | Importance of critical thinking; developing students’ critical thinking; activities in geography. |
| Creativity in geography lessons | Types of creative activities; the creativity wheel; creativity arts in geography |
| Decision making, problem solving and mysteries | Managing decision making and problem solving; at GCSE; activities; making animals activity; layered decision making; mysteries. |
| Argument in geography | Using argumentation; argumentation frame; argument types; argument maps. |
| Curriculum and curriculum planning | |
| What is the curriculum | Different curriculum approaches in schools; who decides? the curriculum? the national framework for geography. |
| Geography curriculum design | Rationale and curriculum intent; coherence; designing a knowledge-rich curriculum; the place of concepts; Ofsted; interleaving; case studies |
| Planning for continuity and progression | Continuity and sequencing; spiral curriculum; planning for reflection. |
| From intent to implementation: curriculum making | Curriculum making as a creative process; key decisions; a toolkit; GeoCapabilities; curriculum artefacts; assessing the impact; curriculum review. |
| Curriculum planning for a trainee teacher | curriculum understanding; writing a scheme of work. |
| Making links with other subjects | Interdisciplinary curricula; big issues; skills-based models; teaching another subject. |
| Resources | |
| Using resources in geography teaching | Available resources; choosing, planning, designing and reviewing; be imaginative! |
| Using technology in geography teaching | Digital technology and teaching; artificial intelligence; access to technology; |
| Printed materials and textbooks | Print resources; why use textbooks? reviewing geography textbooks. |
| Using visual images in geography | Using photographs; photo interpretation and analysis skills; students in taking or selecting photographs; aerial photographs; remote sensing (satellite) images; cartoons; whiteboards; classroom display. |
| Moving images | Ways to use video; predicting with video; |
| Media literacy and the web | Evaluating media and web-based resources; teaching media literacy and criticality; social media; geography in the news; WebQuests. |
| Geospatial technologies | see above |
| Teaching with maps | see above |
| Teaching thematic geography | |
| Teaching human geography | An academic perspective; changes; teaching human geography; using models; population and migration; health and disease; settlements and urban geography; economic geography |
| Values and controversial issues | Why and what should we teach? values and attitudes; teaching strategies; morally careless/careful teaching; planning topics. |
| Cultural diversity in geography education | Political/policy context; tackling racism; racial literacy; race and diversity in geography teaching; representations; challenging stereotypes; lesson planning. |
| Teaching physical geography | Physical geography in the curriculum; accuracy of sources; weather and climate; global ecosystems and biodiversity; landscapes; practical learning; links with science; using speculation; meeting the challenge of teaching physical geography; resources. |
| Teaching environmental geography | Menu |
| Teaching about the environment | The environment and the school curriculum. teaching about the environment; a complex and challenging topic.; what should geographers be teaching? |
| Teaching sustainable development | Different ideologies and perceptions; teaching sustainability; world or local issues; peak oil; the limits to growth; students’ understanding of sustainability; resources. |
| Teaching global warming and climate change | Place of global warming and climate change in the school curriculum; big geographical questions; teaching about climate change; resources. |
| Teaching futures | Teaching geography for the future; students’ hopes and fears for the future; implementation in the classroom. |
| Meanings of development and globalisation; development and globalisation in the curriculum; teaching and key concepts; scale, interdependence, development and globalisation; teaching approaches. | |
| Classroom practice | |
| Classroom practice in geography | |
| Effective Geography Classroom practice | Effective classroom practice; What makes great teaching? Proxies for Learning; forms of classroom practice; observing the teaching-learning relationship. |
| Geography teaching styles | What is teaching style? teacher-centred and student-centred; novice and expert learners; the participation dimension. |
| Collaborative learning in geography | What is collaborative learning? The role of the teacher; planning; practicalities of working in groups; strategies for group discussion. |
| Dialogic teaching and discussion in geography | What is dialogic teaching? dialogic talk; managing discussions; classroom debate. |
| Menu | |
| Explicit teaching and instruction | Explicit teaching; instruction; Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction. |
| Exposition and explaining | What is exposition and using explanation; constructing a diagram to aid explanation; giving explanations; pitfalls. |
| Modelling and demonstration | What is modelling and how to use it; worked examples; modelling a written outcome; different forms of modelling; case studies. |
| Questions in the geography classroom | Teaching geography for the future; students’ hopes and fears for the future; implementation in the classroom. |
| Teacher-led questioning | Questions in the classroom; whole-class questioning techniques; making students think; Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce; higher order questions |
| Students’ questioning skills | Teaching students to ask good questions; simple questioning; 5Ws; classroom strategies; snowballing, hot seating, development compass rose, intelligent guesswork; asking higher order geographical questions; questioning frameworks; layers of inference. |
| Socratic questioning | What is Socratic questioning and how to use it |
| Using key questions for enquiry | Why and what should we teach? values and attitudes; teaching strategies; morally careless/careful teaching; planning topics. |
| Practice | The I-We-You approach |
| Retrieval practice | How to use; forms of retrieval practice; spaced practice and sequencing; reflecting on effective use. |
| Independent practice: learning activities for geography classrooms | The purpose and how to do it; selecting activities; techniques to engage students; thinking hard; activities for geographical learning; the teacher’s role. |
| Scaffolding geographical learning | What is scaffolding and how does it work? strategies used in geography teaching. |
| Geography homework | What is good homework? setting homework; how successful is your homework? flipped learning |
| Mastery learning in geography | What is mastery learning? mastery learning in geography. |
| Enquiry and experiential learning | An overview and menu |
| Geographical enquiry: the teacher’s role | see above |
| Fieldwork experiences and field teaching | see above |
| Role play and drama in geography | Why use role play and drama in geography teaching? planning and managing a role play; drama strategies. |
| Games and simulations | What are they and how to use them; geography examples. |
| Debriefing in geography | What is debriefing and why is it so important? good debriefing. |
| Decision making, problem solving and mysteries (see Critical thinking and creativity) | see above |
| Menu | |
| Good geography lessons | What makes a geography lesson good? essentials of good geography lessons; teaching good geography lessons. |
| Planning geography lessons | Why is lesson planning important? the planning cycle; planning format; what does the jargon mean? |
| Lesson aims objectives and content | What is the ‘big picture’; the lesson aim; content; objectives; sharing lesson objectives with students; pre-planning the lesson. |
| Exploring lesson plans | What to consider in lesson design? lesson planning templates; observing and planning lessons |
| Planning the lesson structure | Elements of a lesson; starts; building on prior knowledge and experiences; instruction; learning activities; plenary; concluding the lesson; presenting the lesson plan; what to avoid? Where is the geography? |
| Evaluating lessons | Reflecting on lessons and the Teachers’ Standards; what to include in a lesson evaluation. |
| Inclusion and adaptation | |
| Creating an inclusive geography classroom | What is inclusion? educational disadvantage; an inclusive classroom; inclusive fieldwork; an inclusive geography curriculum; listen to students. |
| Students’ diverse learning needs | What is SEND? Finding out and understanding the needs of individuals; bilingual learners; disadvantage and underachievement; gender; higher achieving students. |
| Teaching students with different learning needs | Teaching lower attainers, SEND, students who are disadvantaged, underachievers or disaffected; girls and boys; challenging the more able; teaching bilingual students. |
| Adaptive teaching | What is adaptive teaching and how to approach it? lesson observations; diagnosing students’ needs; teaching approaches; pre-teaching, pace and scaffolding; the complexities; Planning adaptive teaching. |
| Working with teaching assistants | Who are teaching assistants? Working with TAs in your classroom; the best use of a TA. |
| Adaptive fieldwork | Planning fieldwork for students with disabilities; higher ability students. |
| Assessment in geography | |
| Assessing students’ learning | Assessment purposes; what does a new teacher need to know and be able to do; assessment terminology; observing assessment; making assessment effective and manageable? |
| Diagnostic assessment | What is it? establishing the starting point; diagnostic assessment during lessons; hinge-points and using hinge questions. |
| Formative assessment | What is formative assessment and AfL? how to use it effectively; questions and assessment; feedback; success criteria and setting good targets; peer and self- assessment |
| Peer and self assessment | How to use peer and self- assessment; success criteria; formative peer assessment; self-assessment and its role in self-regulation and metacognition; geography case studies. |
| Feedback and marking | The purposes of feedback; formative feedback practice; whole-class feedback; students giving feedback to each other; self-checking; written feedback; marking workload and expectations |
| Planning assessment | Assessment and curriculum planning; an assessment framework for geography; mixed economy of assessments; assessment practice; baseline assessments; summative assessment. |
| Assessing progress in geography at key stage 3 | Benchmark expectations; planning assessment; assessing progress. |
| Geography examinations | What do I need to know about examinations and be able to do? current geography examinations; GCSE; A level; fieldwork in examinations; preparing students for examinations; adaptive learning for GCSE; marking and assessing with examination criteria; planning for an examination specification |
| Assessment data and report writing in geography | The use of data in schools; published data; ‘Closing the gap’; writing reports; student portfolios. |
| Wider professional responsibilities | |
| Professional responsibilities and professional development | What is professional development; Contribution to the wider life of the school; working with colleagues and parents; your professional development; visiting other schools; professional training programmes; other CPD activities; professional learning communities; reading; engagement with research. |
| Becoming a reflective geography teacher | What is a reflective teacher and why is it important? reflection in practice; using research and practitioner enquiry. |
| Using research evidence about practice | Why and how to use research evidence; action research in your classroom. |
| Belonging to the geography community | Why is a professional community important? How do I link with my geography community? Geographical websites, blogs and Twitter. |
